The Study Of Zigong Salt Contracts

With the development of the comprehensive national growth, the China society gradually steps into the efforts-taking social transitional period. The dual lackings of contractual consciousness and contractual values have jointly dedicated to the hardship of social transition. The sharp conflicts between resources and benefits, the clashes between authorities and individuals, the profit-seeking with utilitarian, the monopoly of resources and corrupt have not only produced massive social conflicts but also internally jeopardized the in-depth development and the steady transition at present. The soaring GDP certainly has brought exciting news to people, but we should still be worried about the profit-allocation mechanism which built upon identities, and be worried about the supremacy of materialism. At this very point, the cultivation of contractual consciousness and cultures are far more important than raising capitals, upgrading technology and improving administration. Because of the traditional political cultures of China society, the contracts have not only formed the localized static value system internally, but also formed the localized dynamic social structure externally. As for the former, the contracts gathered capitals and agglomerated faiths; as for the latter, the contracts promoted the great-leap-forward development of social economics. Compared with the western society in19th century, the Chinese traditional contracts which were constructed upon trust, honor and profits have not only embodied the spiritual outlook of Chinese people, but also witnessed China society tortuously moved from status to contracts. Some relevant regional cultural studies have manifested the profound connotation and the powerful inner strength of Chinese localized cultures, such as Jinshang Culture and Huishang Culture. However, as for the Zigong salt contracts, which are featured by a high recognition outlook, is almost a virgin academic area. The absence of legal researchers, the small scale, the weak influence, the one-sided analysis of contracts, and the out-dated analytical methods have limited existed studies of Zigong salt contracts.Zigong salt contracts were established among land owners, investors and cheng-shou-ren. They were contracts which have law guarded, targeting with the digging of salt well, the exploring of salt water and the refinement of salt, taking the form of sales contracts, tenancy contracts, loan contracts and contracts of copartnery, creating duties of performances, acts or omissions. And of all kinds of Zigong salt contracts, the tenancy contracts and the copartnery contracts are main types. Zigong salt contracts witnessed the cohesion of capitals, resources and labors, and witnessed the beginning, setbacks and prosperity of salt industry. Zigong salt contracts represent the extraordinary glory of China in19th century. The salt works and its capital groups, which the salt contracts bred, were famous for their capabilities in and out of China at that time. On the one hand, two famous scholars, Xu Dixin and Wu Chengming, have honored Zigong salt works and its capital groups as "the biggest handicraft industry works in the middle19th century" and "the biggest manual capital group" in the book "The History of the Development of Chinese Capitalism"; and on the other hand, the American explorer Vergil Hart once called it as the "giant trade center which was non-comparable in China" in his book "The Investigation of Ziliu Well". Up to modern times, the Zigong salt contracts and its continuity still have the following advantages.First, uniqueness. The Zigong salt culture circle is the only cultural area which made contributions to the modernization happened in19th century by way of cultivating contractual consciousness and promoting the development of national industry. The "contracts+market" mode which was adopted by Zigong salt industry has not only become the new strength and network of the national business and industry, but also energetically promoted the modernization of China society. The theoretical system of Zigong salt contracts has the uniqueness, and this is the very point of studying different kinds of Zigong salt contracts in Chapter Ⅱ-Chapter Ⅳ. The Zigong salt contracts studied in this dissertation appeared in the end of Qing dynasty. It represents the prosperity of traditional contracts, and witnesses the transitional period from ancient contracts to modern ones. Zigong salt contracts have not only optimized the traditional contracts, containing sales contracts, loan contracts, tenancy contracts which hold means of production of salt industry as subject matters; but also formed relatively mature circulation system in real estate transactions, promoting the circulation of salt industry related real estate through sales contracts and tenancy contracts which hold the salt well base and the salt well range as subject matters. Besides, some new kinds of contracts which appeared in modern times can also be found in Zigong salt contracts, such as copartnery contracts, the well digging contracts and so on. Contracts which hold movable and immovable properties as mixed subject matter are also invented, such as sales contracts and tenancy contracts which take the well range, the well base and the well-related shares as mixed subject matters. Second, internationality. As the example of China modernization, the international influence of Zigong salt contracts is self-evident. It is a new research area, through which the history could be reproduced, the developing rules of China modernization could be explored, and the social transition period at present times could be guided and inspired. And this is the very point of studying the system innovation of Zigong salt contracts in Chapter Ⅴ---Chapter Ⅷ. The huge salt contracts system runs on the accumulation of capitals of salt industry, and thereby the values and system innovation of Zigong salt contracts have the internationality. The salt contracts of copartnery produced the first "share" in China and was highly praised by Li Yining; the limited-tenancy digging contracts produced the very original BOT mode worldwidely (namely "the ownership of real estate belonged to investors temporarily in an agreed period, but belonged to landowners permanently when investors left"); by designing the mode of the relay of capital, the shang-zhong-xia-jie contracts tackled the puzzle of maintaining capital in industries which are featured with high investment and high risks; cheng-shou-ren contracts produced the system which could not only promoted the circulation of capitals but also realized the stability of salt industry. Therefore, the Zigong salt contracts research has a high probability to become the new distinguished study since "Dunhuang Studies" and "Hui Studies", no matter in the field of international sinology area or in the field of civil law history area. Besides, observed from the technical dimension and from the social economic dimension, the study on Zigong salt contracts could strongly rectify bias and fallacies against the development of China which has been held by foreign academia, cultural circles and political fields, expelling the blind superiority feelings kept by west-centered scholars. As for the technique dimension, attributed to the limited tenancy digging contracts and the non-limited tenancy digging contracts, Zigong salt merchants succeeded in digging the deepest salt well under no influence of the so-called western advanced technologies. Compared with the deepest digging record kept by the state of Penn, the salt well has surpassed it by3,230.5feet, and has been honored by western scholars as the innovation which could rival with the four great inventions of ancient China. As for the social economic dimension, the Zigong salt merchants have succeeded in gathering capitals, adjusting private relationships, realizing the self-governance of trade associations, and creating salt civilization with the help of different kinds of contracts. That being the case, the commercial economic development mode produced by Zigong salt contracts has greatly challenged the bias held by western mainstream culture, such as lacking modern banking system and authorities squeezed too much over individuals, etc,. Although the prosperous period of Zigong salt contracts has passed about two hundred years, apart from certain scattered academic research, the full, deep and systematic research began in1990s, and it was surprisingly attributed to foreign scholars. For example:the American scholar Samuel Adshead wrote the "Salt and Civilization"; the American scholar Madeleine Zelin and Hans Vogel wrote "The Merchants of Zigong: Industrial Entrepreneurship in Early Modern China" and "The Great Well of China" respectively; the Japanese scholar Tora Yoshida wrote "Salt Production Techniques in Ancient China". However, it is a pity that the above mentioned scholars almost chose to concern on the development of salt industry and the salt techniques, seldom touched the legal area, let alone analyze Zigong salt contracts archives from a private law perspective and deduct the social transitional influence of salt contracts.Third, modernity. What the Zigong salt contracts manifested was not merely the transactions in salt industry, but also the sustainable combination of resources and capitals, and the rising up of salt merchants. This is the very point of studying the modern meanings of Zigong salt contracts in Chapter IX. On the one hand, the salt culture circle which was built upon Zigong salt contracts was worthy of references to the transition of modern society, no matter in the transition of agricultural structure, in the transition of occupations of peasants, or in the transition of the structure of rural society:the collective construction land system can borrow from the original BOT mode established in limited tenancy digging contracts (the ownership of real estate belonged to investors temporarily in an agreed period, but belonged to landowners permanently when investors left) operating mechanism is not only good to attract social capitals but also good for eliminating risks of losing collective-owned property; the coparter mode which was established in shang-zhong-xia-jie contracts and cheng-shou-ren contracts could also be borrowed to build the equal and the co-operated relationship between the collective and peasants, to unlock the puzzle of pieceful management and self-sufficient of farming, to shape the sharing mechanism of interest of land property, and to promote the transformation of the three agricultural related structures; the breakthrough against identity dependence realized by salt merchants and the establishment of landowners’ dominant positions in tenancy-based parternership have inspired us how to use land in intensifying the dominant role of the collective in developing rural economics. On the other hand, the Zigong salt contracts witnessed how the merchant class gradually formed and became the hard core of promoting the social economic transformation, how the merchant class was after the equality and freedom through establishing organizations, and how under the help of the customary law the merchant class achieved success through realizing self-governance against the intervention of authorities.To conclude, history always reflects modern times, and resources to promote modern transformation of China hide in localized traditional cultures. The salt circle, which was reflected by Zigong salt contracts, was an attempt to transform the agricultural civilization into industrial civilization. The Zigong salt contracts are just a breakthrough point, because the ultimate goal of this dissertation is to reveal modern meanings of localized civil law resources, to reappear social influences of Zigong salt contracts, to grasp rules of development, to innovate new ideas of development, to break puzzles of development, and to establish self-confidence of the road, the theory and the system of development. This dissertation takes the structure of "summary-deduction-summary". Chapter I plays the role of pandect, Chapter Ⅱ---Chapter Ⅷ study different kinds of Zigong salt contracts, and Chapter IX summarizes modern meanings of Zigong salt contracts, especially to social transition. The main content of each chapter is listed as follows. Chapter I is centered on the historical role, the concept, and features of Zigong salt contracts; Chapter II is centered upon the salt sales contracts, through conducting a debate around the nature of salt sales contracts the conclusion comes out that the business in Zigong salt sales contracts has its uniqueness and the ownership reserved has its reasons; Chapter III is centered around the salt tenancy contracts, arriving at conclusions on standards of judeging the salt pre-tenancy contracts and the salt re-tenancy contracts through analyzing rights and obligations of both clients, and also the chapter has clarified misunderstandings existed in current Zigong salt contracts studies; Chapter IV is focused on the salt loan contracts, concentrating on its uniqueness of guarantee methods and its varying protective measures to different contracting parties; Chapter V is centered on the limited tenancy digging contracts, arriving at the conclusion that the original BOT mode seems alike the modern one through revealing the features of the operation mode of digging contracts; Chapter VI is centered upon the shang-zhong-xia-jie contracts, focusing on its features on basic theories of rifen, the various relationships among shang-jie zhong-jie and xia-jie, the shares-reorganization and the co-ownership; Chapter VII is centered around the cheng-shou-ren contracts, focusing on the allocation of rights and obligations among cheng-shou-ren, landowners and investors, and reaches the conclusion that cheng-shou-ren was the original manager through analyzing the revolution of the rights and duties of cheng-shou-ren himself; Chapter VIII is concentrated on the salt partnership contracts, analyzing its flexibility on partnership mode, its universality on partnership property, and its progressiveness on partners’ relationships; Chapter IX is centered on the modern meaning of salt contracts, revealing that the transition of China has to rely on two kinds of strength, manpower and material resources, which means not only the citizen stratum in all industries should be paid attention to be fostered, the capitalize of rural collective land should also be attached great importance, using the mode of "shareholding system+unlimited right to use+market" to promote the social transition.